College homicide victim identifed as National City teen

Police are asking the public's help to find Armando Gabriel Perez, who was charged in 2010 with killing his wife, Diana Gonzalez, at San Diego City College. Police believe he is in Tijuana. He has a tattoo of "RS" or "LRS" on the web of his right hand.— Photo courtesy of San Diego police

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Police are asking the public's help to find Armando Gabriel Perez, who was charged in 2010 with killing his wife, Diana Gonzalez, at San Diego City College. Police believe he is in Tijuana. He has a tattoo of "RS" or "LRS" on the web of his right hand.
/ Photo courtesy of San Diego police

San Diego  Homicide detectives are investigating the death of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found in a men’s bathroom at San Diego City College on Tuesday night, two weeks after she told police her estranged husband had kidnapped her from the campus.

Police have named Diana Gonzalez’s husband, Amando Gabriel Perez, as a “person of interest” in the case. The couple has a 10-month-old daughter.

Gonzalez, who lived in National City, obtained a temporary restraining order against Perez last month after he allegedly assaulted her and held her captive in motel rooms for three days. He was promptly arrested but released from jail when prosecutors declined to file charges, authorities said.

Her relatives, who were so fearful for her safety that they accompanied her almost everywhere she went, said Wednesday they believe the criminal justice system that is supposed to protect domestic violence victims like her failed.

“We did so much and nothing happened,” said the victim’s mother, Concepción Gonzalez, referring to efforts made with law enforcement to protect their daughter. “They just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’ I said, ‘Are we supposed to wait for him to kill her?’ ”

Police said Perez, 37, has a sister who lives in Tijuana, and they are working with Mexican authorities to locate him. He is believed to be driving a 1999 blue Ford Mustang with the California license plate 6GKA572.

The District Attorney’s Office will not discuss why cases are rejected, a spokesman said.

“Because of an ongoing investigation, we can’t comment on this case specifically,” District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said in a statement Wednesday. “I want to make it clear that the District Attorney’s Office takes cases of domestic violence very seriously. We work closely with victims and hold perpetrators accountable whenever possible.”

Gonzalez filed for a temporary restraining order on Sept. 28, and a judge granted it. Perez had not been served with the order, but a court hearing had been set for Oct. 19.

Homicide Capt. Jim Collins declined to release Gonzalez’s cause of death but said she was killed in the bathroom. Her injuries were so severe it was hard to identify her. A fingerprint comparison will be done during an autopsy today, Collins said.

A student found Gonzalez’s body about 10:05 p.m. in the M building on B Street near Park Boulevard.

Gonzalez was supposed to be in a class that ended at 9:30 p.m., said Jasmin Perez, Gonzalez’s cousin. Her parents were waiting for her in a college parking lot, parked next to two campus police cars, with eyes on her classroom.

When she didn’t come out after class and didn’t answer calls to her cell phone, the parents called police.

Three hours later, the cousin said, detectives notified Jose and Concepción Gonzalez that their daughter had been killed.

“They kind of already knew,” Perez said.

Gonzalez and her husband, who met at a shopping mall in 2007, married in January but were estranged, according to court records.

Gonzalez filed a police report on Sept. 23 claiming her husband showed up to the college campus on a Tuesday night and began arguing with her, refusing to leave. At her car, he choked her until she lost consciousness, she wrote. When she came to in the passenger seat, she realized her face was bloody.

Perez drove to a motel room and told her, “Just close your eyes and pray. That’s all you can do now,” according to the report.

“I felt there was no way to escape,” Gonzalez recalled in a written account.

The next day, Perez drove them to a nearby store so he could get skin creams to reduce the redness and swelling in her face, she wrote. She tried to escape by running down the street, but he caught up to her and shoved her back in the car, she reported.

Later, he threatened to crash into something on the freeway to kill them both if she didn’t listen to him. Perez also reportedly raped her twice during the ordeal.

He let her go the next day. Her family canceled the missing person report they had filed with National City police and reported the kidnapping to San Diego police.

Perez was arrested the following day. Collins said physical evidence was obtained, but he declined to elaborate. Gonzalez’s family said police told them Perez was released Sept. 29 because of “insufficient evidence.”

A misdemeanor domestic battery charge against Perez from April 2009 was dismissed this past April, court records state. No further details were available.

When asked why some cases are not prosecuted, Caity Meader, manager of Becky’s House, a program for abuse victims, said domestic violence cases are complicated and that often it depends on what prosecutors believe they can prove.

“A lot of times, the legal system — like any system such as the shelter system, child welfare system, domestic violence system — is not able to do what some would hope it could,” Meader said. “I think we all feel that way when something tragic happens. What could we all have done differently.”

Meader said getting a restraining order can be a good idea but cautioned “it can only do so much.”

Gonzalez’s mother was inconsolable Wednesday as family and friends gathered at the family’s home.

“She was a good daughter,” said Concepción Gonzalez as she sobbed. “She always helped around the house. She never did drugs. She didn’t smoke or go out. … She was always in her room, studying.”

Gonzalez was taking general education courses at City College with plans to enter a nursing program.